Notes from The Writer's Corner

Watch our conversation with Ronit Plank, join us next week for an Open Discussion, only six spots left for our Spring Writing Retreat, and more to inspire your writing.

This week, we spoke with writer, teacher, and editor Ronit Plank on the art of memoir writing.

A few key takeaways from this discussion:
• If you are asking yourself, why should I write my story? Ronit has an answer.
• Why staying true to your own memory matters more than accommodating anyone else’s version.
• Why you often need to write your way into understanding a story’s meaning.
• How writing can change your relationship with a story.
• And much more!

Check out her Substack: Ronit Plank. For more information on her podcast, Let’s Talk Memoir, click HERE. To learn more about her memoir, When She Comes Back, click HERE.

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Next week …

This will be an open discussion for writers, especially in light of the moment we’re in. With so much noise, grief, and uncertainty in the world these days, we’ll talk about how writing can act as both alchemy and a way to speak from our values.

Bring your questions, struggles, and hard-won wisdom. As always, these sessions are not recorded so the conversation can remain honest and safe.

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Only 6 spots left for our Wisdom & Words Spring 2026 Writing Retreat!

Join us Thursday, June 4 to Sunday, June 7, 2026, for an ALL-INCLUSIVE writerly, long weekend at Bear Mountain Inn & Barn in Waterford, Maine.

Planned activities include:
• Daily Writing Classes and Private One-on-One Coaching Sessions (all levels) offered by Darcey Gohring
• For fiction and memoir writers
• Craft Conversations and Writing Workshops with special guests, including bestselling author Joanna Rakoff
• Optional morning Yoga Class (all levels)

The entire Inn will be reserved for retreat guests only! Every guest will have private accommodations. Includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner prepared by executive chef and innkeeper Nicholas Orgo.

There will also be ample time to utilize the property’s amenities, which include kayaking, canoeing, hiking, hot tubbing, fire pitting, bird-watching, and star-gazing. Or find a quiet spot and write till your heart’s content with no interruptions! Also opportunity to explore local antique shops, art galleries, and shops off-site.

Click HERE to learn more!

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Food for thought …

When writers say, “I’m blocked. I feel totally uninspired. I can’t write anything.” I often ask, “But have you really been listening?” or “Have you been judging ideas and tossing them aside before you’ve even given them a chance?”

Our creative brains are like a muscle—the more we use them, the easier they are to access, and the more ideas come. The greater amount of space you give to that side of yourself, the more it awakens. So it only makes sense that when we neglect it, inspiration becomes harder to find and blocks tend to form.

One of the most important things to nurture as a writer (even when we’re busy with other things) is seeds. Seeds are ideas, tiny sparks that hit you out of nowhere. They often come to us when we least expect them (going for a walk, taking a shower, in the middle of the night, driving, watching a movie, cooking dinner). If you’re a creative, you know what I’m talking about—when a seed hits you, it feels different, you know there is something there.

A seed may be one sentence, a detail, a scene, a particular moment, a memory, or a line of dialog. It may be an entirely new idea or an element that can be used in something you’re already working on.

The problem with seeds is they are easy to ignore—to say: “I don’t need to write that down, I’ll remember it later.” But seeds are fleeting; they come and go. And spoiler alert—I’m here to tell you, you probably won’t remember it later, and you need to, because many times, seeds are what stories are built on.

Some of the seeds you collect will grow, and some won’t. Your job is simply to collect them and see if they take root when the time is right. Resist the urge to assign value to them or judge them. Instead of analyzing what the piece around them might be, try thinking of them simply as points of discovery. Each one may have endless directions to go in, or it may work in something you already have in place. A seed can sit for months and then suddenly, like magic, its time has come.

Just remember: You don’t have to know where you will use a seed when it hits you, all you need to do is take a minute to “collect” it. Keep a “seed notebook,” write it down on an envelope, send yourself an email or a text, whatever works for you.

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Quote to inspire:
“Day by day, page by page, you uncover the answers that are already inside of you, and you begin to transform.” - From The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad

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